This talk will begin by briefly looking into some of the issues of female infanticide and child abandonment in China in the 1800s. What were the reactions of foreign missionaries and local Chinese literati? What was the perception of these Chinese abandoned infants in Europe as these stories of female infanticide and abandonment travelled back to Europe? What was the Catholic theological position on unbaptized dying babies in those days? What prompted the establishment of the Holy Childhood Association? How did the Holy Childhood establish itself in Hong Kong in the late 1840s? What were some of experiences of the French Sisters of St. Paul De Chartres as they began their work in the newly established British Colony in the face of war, disease, terrorism, political turmoil, and persecutions prompted by underlying anti-foreign sentiments?

The Speaker

Dr. Vicky Lee is currently an External Consultant for the HKBU Centre for Teaching and Learning. Her publications cover issues of race, interraciality and war memoirs in Hong Kong. Her seminal work Being Eurasian: Memories across Racial Divides (HKU Press, 2004) was on interraciality in wartime Hong Kong. In recent years, she had contributed a number of papers at the Annual Conferences on HK Catholic History sponsored by CUHK Centre for Catholic Studies and Hong Kong Diocese Archives. These include Sacraments in Hostile Environments: the Siege of Hong Kong December 8-25, 1941 and COVID-19 of 2020 (published in the Conference Proceedings of the History of Hong Kong Catholic Church in the 20th Century, April 2021), Tracing the beginning works of Sainte Enfance (Holy Childhood) in Colonial Hong Kong (Conference Proceedings in press). And recently on June 25, 2023, she had also contributed a paper entitled Research as Detective Work: deciphering the historical Blue Books and Government Reports to unravel the History of Catholic Schools in Hong Kong.

PROGRAMME

Admission: In Person at $160 for members, $200 for guests /non-members. (Drink and snacks are included in the attendance fee)

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